


Happy Birthday, Beautiful

by Itenoria



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - This World Inverted (Shadowhunters TV), Birthday Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-09-03 16:10:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8720254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Itenoria/pseuds/Itenoria
Summary: The thing about having lived for centuries is that birthdays are no longer such a big deal. A pity no one told that to Magnus Bane's party extraordinaire boyfriend: Alec Lightwood.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this fic is entirely for the amazing [Eris](http://highwarlok.tumblr.com/). Hope this little ficlet makes you smile love, because you do deserve the best and I hope you have a kick ass year.   
> The title of the fic is from the song "Happy Birthday, Beautiful" by the Innocence Mission.

Magnus Bane didn’t do birthdays.

Not like he had anything against them personally. He didn’t. He was always okay with hanging out with friends during their birthday parties. Luke for example had a thing for making everything a birthday celebration. The day he walked away from his job on the force to open a bookstore, he threw a birthday party. And when Magnus had pointed out that it technically _wasn’t_ Luke’s birthday, Luke had given him some zen speech about it being a symbolic celebration of the fact that he was now technically transforming his life and being reborn, so yeah metaphysically, it was his birthday.

Magnus had tuned him out. Luke hadn’t cared. It worked out well for the both of them.

So yeah, he was okay with hanging out with friends when they wanted to celebrate their birthday parties.

He just wasn’t comfortable with celebrating his. Because really, after centuries of being alive, parties got kind of tiring.

Of course he was sure he was going against every hedonistic stereotype that would have him be this party animal that spent his life partying, but he’d done that in his eighties and nineties. Hell, his one hundred and forty-fifth birthday party was something that would still set tongues wagging if anyone ever mentioned it in the right company.

So yeah, he’d had his fun. Right now though, he was in his let’s just relax and take things easy phase.

A real pity though that no one had shared that bit of information with his boyfriend: party planner extraordinaire, Alexander Lightwood. “Seriously Alec,” Magnus said and raised his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose, even as he suppressed a sigh. “I don’t want you to do anything for my birthday.”

“But why,” Alec asked, that stubborn note creeping into his voice. Magnus recognized that tone. He knew it as well as he knew his own name, and although there were days when he loved that headstrong quality—he’d especially loved it when Alec had chased him with the single minded purpose of a man on a mission, whose mission had been to get a date and eventually, a relationship with Magnus Bane—on days like today when it was directed towards roping him into something he had no interest in, Magnus wasn’t too fond of it. “It’s your birthday,” Alec added, his voice raised high and happy on the last word.

Magnus sighed. “Yes it is. But…”

“No buts, Magnus,” Alec cut in. “It’s the very first birthday you’re having since we got together and I’m going to make it special.”

And with that very worrying declaration made, Alec hung up the phone.

Shit.

And as if the universe hadn’t felt like it had hit him in the nuts hard enough, he heard a crash and looked up to find Church glaring at him from his perch on the kitchen island; the shattered remains of Magnus’ favourite mug on the ground.

He glared at Church.

Church hissed right back at him.

“You did that on purpose,” he accused and Church stuck his tail high up in the hair and slinked off.

Magnus sighed and with a wave of his fingers, cleared up the mess.

Moments after Church left, Chairman Meow jumped onto Magnus’ lap, turned around and stared at the empty food bowl.

Drat. He’d gotten so distracted with trying to get Alec to give up on throwing him a party that he’d forgotten to feed them.

“You know, you could have just as easily done what the chairman did and meowed or something. You didn’t need to break it to show that you’re hungry,” Magnus called out.

Church maintained his silence.

Stupid cat. Magnus was sure he'd been sent to torment him.

Between Church and having to celebrate his birthday, he wasn’t sure which one of them he would rather have nothing to do with.

* * *

“Come on Izzy. Surely he’s told you something,” Magnus begged as he swiped through his daily planner, glaring at the red line around the date, declaring that in just three days, he would be turning a year older, and Alec would be roping him into some celebration he had no interest in participating in.

“Trust me Magnus,” Izzy said, sounding half distracted as she tried to placate him. “He’s being surprisingly tight-lipped about this.”

_He was? That just made it so much worse._

“Seriously, even with the Institute’s Through the Looking Glass party, he couldn’t shut up. Kept telling us about how the theme was _amazing_ ,” she said with an inflection that was so close to how Alec would have said it that Magnus had to suppress a smile. He could picture it already. How those hazel eyes would light up as Alec tried telling everyone who would listen about how he was planning a party that would blow their minds away.

Nothing made him as happy as seeing a happy Alec doing what he loved.

Unless what he loved was what Magnus hated. In which case, Magnus was in a bind.

He returned to himself and caught the tail end of Izzy’s joyous exclamation. “…Meaning he’s pulling out all the stops. It will be perfect,” she crowed.

_No it won’t._

* * *

Seriously. What happened to spending a birthday at home? Surrounded by his cats, held in the arms of the man he was falling in love with, whilst listening to old songs or watching old movies?

Even as the thought flashed through his mind, Magnus found himself sinking further into a rut as he spoke to Jace. Two days before his birthday and Jace was basically telling him the same thing he’d heard from Izzy. “I really wish I could help you Magnus. But he’s keeping mum, and he's terrified that if you find out his plans, everything would be ruined.”

So Alec _did_ know him well enough to know that if Magnus could only get a whiff of what club Alec might be throwing the party at, he would easily make sure that he wasn’t within a two-mile radius of the place.

But nope, no one knew anything, and he couldn’t run out of town, because he had a business to run, and a boyfriend who would be hurt should he think that Magnus wanted so little to do with his planned birthday party that he ran out of town.

“Either way, I don’t know why you’re so worried though. It’s Alec we’re talking about. I’m sure it would be the birthday of your dreams,” Jace said, sounding utterly confident.

Magnus didn’t feel as confident.

* * *

A day to his birthday and Magnus still had no idea what Alec was planning. He'd called Clary but she'd known even less than Izzy and Jace had, which shouldn't have surprised him really. It was highly unlikely that the same Alec who was keeping mum about his plans would turn around and share his secrets with Clary. They weren't _that_ close.

And that was why when he called Simon about an hour later to fish for information, Magnus wished he could smack himself, because not only was Simon even more oblivious that Clary—hell, Clary knew it was his birthday tomorrow, Simon had no idea—but Simon spent the next thirty minutes talking about how bitcoin was the future, and so Magnus should invest in this business idea he had that would be sure to rake in the 'big bucks'.

Magnus didn't have the heart to inform him that he had several lifetimes of investments saved up and he had no intention on investing in anything Simon was cooking up.

Especially considering Simon hadn't offered him any useful potential birthday party information in exchange.

* * *

Of course when his birthday arrived, it arrived with blue skies dotted with white clouds and the sun stood out brilliantly, casting gentle rays like it too was laughing at how much he was going to hate his birthday.

It was even more annoying because the day before had been smog filled and he hadn't been able to catch a glimpse of the sky because he'd had errands to run and had not returned until later the previous night.

But now that all his consultations were at home, everything was beautiful and perfect. A perfect day for a walk in the park and a midday picnic.

He heard a soft mewl and turned to look at Chairman Meow. "If you were the one throwing me a party, you would at least make sure it was something I would enjoy. Right Chairman?"

Chairman Meow gave a loud yawn and then scampered out of the room. Seconds later, he was meowing loudly.

_Time for breakfast._

* * *

The day dragged.

It probably had more to do with the fact that he spent his time alternating between checking his phone for the time, and checking it for messages.

After Alec had woken up in the early hours of the morning, dropped a kiss on his mouth, handed him a cup of coffee and hurried out of the door with the claims that he had a ton of work to do, it had taken Magnus another hour to fully wake up, at which point he'd figured out that Alec hadn't had work to do. Nope, his boyfriend had snuck out so he could put together whatever plans he had for Magnus' birthday.

And so Magnus was spending the day, half wishing time would slow down so it would take forever before he had to meet its unwanted end, and half wishing for it to race along so he would be done faster and can get it over and done with.

"Is everything okay?"

The words had Magnus looking up to stare at Luke who was staring at him with a concerned look on his face. His wire rimmed glasses slid down his nose and Luke pushed it back up and squinted at Magnus. "You haven't been looking good all day."

Magnus pushed away from his seat and stretched. "Yeah well, it's been a long day."

Luke chuckled. "Not the way you planned on spending your birthday huh?"

Luke must have noticed something in his expression because he cocked his head and stared harder at him. "Want to talk about it?"

Magnus sighed and shook his head.

If he was to have the talk with anybody, it would be with his oddly silent boyfriend and not his sometimes friend, sometimes client.

Luke shrugged and walked to get his jacket, and shortly after, Magnus got two texts in rapid succession.

The first was from Alec.

_Will be at yours in like thirty mins. Are you ready?_

Would the birthday celebrations be postponed if he said he wasn't?

The second message was from Hodge.

_SOS. Need help. Something's wrong with the Dojo._

His reply to Hodge was instantaneous.

_I'll be there in ten._

In the time it took him to pick up his jacket and slip his cards into his coat pocket, Luke had already grabbed his jacket and was waiting for him at the door. They didn't need to say anything to each other. Luke had known him long enough to know that when an emergency arose, Magnus was all about getting to wherever he was needed as soon as possible so he could help sort it out.

He was in a cab in three minutes and as the car made its way to Hodge's dojo, he typed out a quick message to Alec.

_Something came up. Work related. Have to go see Hodge. Just let yourself in. I'll be there in a bit._

Alec replied with three words.

_Take your time._

He also included a winky face emoticon.

It was cute.

* * *

By the time he got back to the loft, evening had fallen. The night was cool; the sidewalk was crowded with singles and couples hurrying off to get work done before they could call it a day. It left him with a melancholic feeling, a desire to take a stroll with Alec, fingers entangled in Alec's fingers as they walked side by side, taking in the beauty of the city.

He sighed and then smiled.

Who knows? Maybe them going for a party would still give them the opportunity to take a walk before or after the party was over. Even if he hated the first part of the celebrations, nothing said he couldn't make the most of what was left and still try and have a great time tonight.

After all, he couldn't say Alec wasn't trying his best to make his birthday special.

He stepped into the loft, taking note of the silence that filled the space. Even as he wondered where Alec was, he turned on the light switch and stumbled to a stop as instead of the overly white fluorescent bulbs that he'd gotten used to shining down on him, his living room space was bathed in a warm orange glow that made him think of sunsets and lazy evenings.

He dropped his bag on the floor and walked further into the loft, coming to a halt at the sight that met his eyes.

Alec had shifted his furniture around. In the middle of his living room, he'd arranged several poufs and fluffy looking pillows, and to the side was a neatly folded duvet.

At the moment, he was carrying a massive bowl filled with popcorn in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other. "Hey," he smiled as he stopped by the poufs. He carefully placed the bowl and the bottle on the floor, and walked over, hair a bit messy but eyes bright as he leaned forward and kissed Magnus.

Magnus sank into the kiss with a sigh, releasing a little moan as Alec nibbled on his lips, even as his hands rose to grab onto Alec's shoulders.

Alec finally pulled away and smiled down at him, those hazel eyes twinkled. He turned around, disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a bowl laden with chocolates—ha, white maltesers. His favourite—packets of potato chips, chocolate chip cookies and doritos.

They were all his favourites.

He looked at Alec who winked at him. "I figured you might want something a bit intimate." Alec smiled. "Happy Birthday Magnus."

Magnus cleared his throat, eyes blinking fast at the surprise and joy of the moment that this wonderful, amazing man, actually got it, and he hadn't needed to worry or explain what he wanted. Alexander Lightwood knew him.

"You're doing that thing again," Alec murmured.

"What thing," Magnus asked.

Alec pointed, fingers moving in the air as he gestured at Magnus' face. "Looking stunned." He grinned. "Reminds me of the first time we met."

"Well you're always surprising me," Magnus replied, his voice sounding hoarse as he was bombarded with the visuals of the first time he'd seen Alec Lightwood at the Mad Hatter Party and something in those eyes had called to him.

Alec chuckled and then walked up to Magnus, slowly pulling him till they sat on the poufs. He pulled Magnus to himself so Magnus' back was connected to his chest whilst he leaned against the leg of the couch that he'd pulled forward as a headrest.

He picked up the remote and gestured at the TV. "Anything you want to watch?" Magnus grinned and Alec chuckled. "You're never going to get tired of watching it are you?"

Magnus reached for one of the maltesers packet and tore it open then tossed some of the balls into his mouth. He shook his head. "Nope."

They were both chuckling as Alec hit play and _serendipity_ came on.

He must have dozed off at some point because Magnus slowly drifted between wakefulness and sleep, head swimming as he wanted to stay awake to finish the movie, but at the same time, he was feeling so rested and relaxed he just wanted to sleep.

And then, he felt warm lips brush the corner of his ear, as he heard Alec whisper, "Happy Birthday, Beautiful."

Even half asleep, Magnus smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed it :). I've never really attempted writing world inverted Malec before but it was a lot of fun :). Let me know what you guys think :D. And if you'd rather reach out to me on Tumblr, I'm [here](http://candycane-magnus.tumblr.com/). If you'd rather reach out to me on Twitter (note I come on over there sporadically), you can find me [here](https://twitter.com/itenoria).


End file.
